Throughout Dragon Ball, Bulma has changed her hair color several times. This is actually nothing unusual, as characters can change their hair color with dyes. Even Bulma’s children change their hair color throughout the anime. Initially, only one hair color was intended for the family.
Which hair color is the real one? The creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, originally intended for Bulma to have purple hair. In colored drawings depicting her in her youth, she is shown with this hair color. Also in Dragon Ball Z (except for chapter 1), she is seen with purple hair.
The same was intended for her children: Both Trunks and Bulla are depicted with purple hair. Only with Dragon Ball Super did the hair colors change to blue.
What’s the situation in the anime? The production team at Toei Animation is responsible for the execution of the anime. Here, Bulma suddenly, apart from one movie, has turquoise hair. The reason for this is unclear. Even more confusing: In Dragon Ball Z, Bulma keeps her turquoise hair, but Future Trunks suddenly has the purple hair from the manga source.
With Dragon Ball Super, things get even more confusing: Bulma ends up with blue hair like in the manga, as does Future Trunks. However, the young version of Trunks suddenly has purple hair again, which originally comes from the original Dragon Ball manga. It seems that Toriyama and Toei Animation did not coordinate and tried to compromise on the hair color.
In Dragon Ball Daima, Bulma has her blue hair, but Trunks has his purple:
Possible reasons for the changing hair of Bulma
What could be the reason for this? It has never been revealed officially why the hair colors keep changing. In Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, the anime decided on a different hair color than in the manga. Presumably, it was because the production team felt that the turquoise color suited Bulma better.
The fact that Trunks retained his purple hair from the original might have been decided for spoiler reasons. Toei Animation likely wanted to avoid revealing too early that Future Trunks is the son of Bulma and Vegeta.
In Dragon Ball Super, the cat was already out of the bag. The anime then stuck to Bulma’s blue hair. Only young Trunks still has the purple hair from the original. Since young Trunks and Future Trunks suddenly appear at the same time, it could be that the anime team wanted to avoid confusing the two.
Additionally, fans have other ideas on why the hair color might change:
- Real people’s hair turns gray or white as they age. In the anime, they simply turn blue.
- Young Trunks was supposed to keep his purple hair in Dragon Ball Super because he has the potential to become Super Saiyan Blue. In this transformation, Saiyans already have blue hair.
- Bulma is one of the richest people in Dragon Ball. After all, her family owns the Capsule Corporation. And with money, a lot is possible.
We will probably never learn the official reason since the mangaka recently passed away. Before his death, he at least revealed to us why the hair color of the Super Saiyan turns blonde: Dragon Ball Z: Son-Goku has blonde hair when he becomes a Super Saiyan – there’s a good reason for that
